Granting a Thief's Wishes

"Hear me out," he said softly, taking a seat. "Just, give me a chance to explain?" Nicholas continued, looking at me with those same, worried but sincere eyes. I nodded reluctantly. From my experiences, it was never good to have someone tell me to give them a chance to explain. There were two possibilities when people say those kinds of things:

a) They would drop a mindfuck-bomb at you.

b) Just for fun.

By the looks of it, Nicholas wasn't settling for option B.

He licked his tongue nervously, scratching the back of his neck as he tried to grasp the suitable words that won't piss me off, probably. Finally, after my impatient gaze, he let out a huge sigh before saying, "I know. You didn't have to tell me. You didn't even have to bring me to your sisters to prove it. One look at that bracelet and I know what you are."

Hm. I thought so. It was stupid option A after all!

"The thing is, I owe Ryan a huge favor. A year back, I got drunk...and--" he paused, rubbing his temple vigorously. He wanted to say something, I know he did. But for some reason, whatever he wanted to say was lodged inside his throat - never wanting to get out.

"Nick?" I whispered.

He sighed - this time, more harshly as he slumped back in his seat and said, "I did meth."

For a while, my brain couldn't process the piece of information. It lingered in the air, causing awkward silence between Nick and I. A kind of tension so thick, you can cut it with a knife. I always joked that tension made me allergic. But I couldn't. Not now. Not while I was trying to swallow the fact that Nicholas did more than just stealing.

"Are you kidding me?!" I spat.

He ran his fingers through his hair. "Look, it was a couple of times, alright? I'm fine now. I'm clean. And sober. Honest."

"Sober, my ass. You were drinking when I was searching for you that day. When you suddenly went AWOL."

His hands were clasped together and his elbows were resting on his knees. He looked down to his shoes, muttering something to himself before sighing yet again. When he looked at me, his expression was dark.

"Susannah, let it go, okay? It was just that once. Now we can go talk about this all night or we can focus on the real story."

"Okay, fine. Whatever," I said, throwing my arms up in defeat but that was such a huge failure as I ended up cringing and cradling my arm instead. If Nick wasn't in third degree situation right now, he would've been amused. "But," I said, after recovering from my little whimpers. "We'll talk about that meth thing later."

He shot me an annoyed glance. "Anyway, I got so high and drunk one night that I almost hurt this girl I was with. I was a douchebag. I really was."

"Ryan stopped you," I said.

"He did. I would've done something stupid that night. I would've..." he trailed off. Something told me that I shouldn't stick my nose up this one. Yet. "After that he got me to quit meth. So. I owe him. I told him that. And that's when he decided to introduce me to this little mythical world of Tinkerbells and unicorns."

"Unicorns are actually quite violent creatures when provoked-- okay, okay! I'm sorry. Go on."

"He showed me the book, the one that contained a picture of that bracelet. He was...you can say, fascinated by the bracelet and the beholder of the bracelet. He was smitten by mythology. I couldn't blame him for trying to find you. It would be discovery of the century. I did, told him though, that what he's studying is a load of bull.

So he took me to this little place of his. That's when I saw it. A bunch of flower sprites and pixies at first. But it was enough for me. He told me that he first found one when he was 7. I thought he wasn't harming them."

"When did you know that he was?"

"After you...uh, threw coffee all over me..."

"Sorry," I muttered, feeling flustered.

"Hey, totally deserve it," he said, a small smile tugging on his lips. I couldn't help but smiling back. "I found out tonight. When I went to find him after coffee."

"You're saying that you indebted to him, and to make things even, you set out to find me. So what we have..."

He raised his eyebrow. "Susannah, you have to understand that I did met you for Ryan. But for the past few weeks, our friendship wasn't a lie. I wasn't faking anything with you. He was so fascinated by the bracelet, so I figured I'll use my...er...expertise.

He asked me to find you too, just in case that you're really are the fairy he's looking for. I swear I didn't know what he wanted to do. I thought he was just...researching. I thought this was going to be platonic. Once I introduced you to Ryan, then that's it. But...you've got me reeled in. I'm hooked."

Okay amidst of everything that happened to me, I couldn't help but feel a glow of happiness growing in my heart. I got Nicholas Peterson reeled in. I got him hooked!

Wait, what did that mean?

In one swift motion, he got up and sat on the bed right beside me. He placed his hand on my knee, a teasing smile plastered on his face. I didn't want to talk this time. I knew what he wanted to do, and I just didn't give a damn anymore.

I wanted it to happen.

When I fell into his arms, when I fell into his arms, I knew that in some weird way, I didn't care if we met under some messed up circumstances. I just wanted him.

"I thought I would lose you," he murmured, his lips barely grazing mine.

"Thank you. For going in there to find me."

"Thank Kylie. Earlier, I had already got everyone climbing down the fire escape after I knocked that Weird Hat Dude. A friend of Ryan. He was trying to rip the wings of Tiffany. Like a pigeon."

That explained the screaming, huh?

"Kylie told me that you went back in there," he said. "That was a stupid thing to do, Suze."

"But the...griffins!"

The sharp look he was giving me softened and he embraced me again. "Don't do that again, please."

While I did appreciate his concerns but I craved for more answers. How did Kylie find me in the first place?

No.

The fire.

The memories were flooding in my vision now. Did I cause the fire? What the heck happened?

Nick kissed me again, but I couldn't concentrate. I caused the fire, didn't I? Gosh. I recalled seeing something before the fire spread, I just didn't know what.

The door swung open and a bandaged Ethan closed his eyes, a grin on his face. "Get a room!"

"We are in a room," I shot back.

"Then lock the room!"

"There's a lock?"

"Anyway," Ethan said, stepping aside. "I want to introduce you to someone. This is Beth E. Teague."

My jaws dropped.

An elderly woman came into the room. She was in her early 60s, and I knew her from rumors when I was a teenager. She was wearing a pair of pearl earrings and a flowery blouse. She was thin and tall. But for some reason, Beth's arm was bent in front of her, as if she's holding something away from her.

"As you know, the descendant of the 8th generation of the original angels," Ethan explained, shrugging. "She has something you might be interested in."

"My dear child," she said softly. I clasped Nicholas' hand, looking at him nervously. What was one of The Council members doing here? I didn't even know they existed!

Oh damn, I was screwed, wasn't I? I might be punished in...some fairy jail or something. Oh no, no.

"I have something that might interest you."

And all at once, flames started to appear out of thin air. Right on her arm.